Nikon Capture NX..any good?

[wild_england]

Since recently purchasing a new Nikon camera it apperarently comes with CaptureNX free.

Is anyone using/previously used capture nx and what do they think of it?

Regards

[reflectionsbyruth]

Nikon Capture NX free? thats news to me. Maybe you got lucky
I had to pay for my NX, about $100 or close to it.

I like it a lot, much better than all previous version of Nikon Capture.
I think you will be pleased with the results

[di]

Check carefuly if its free - mine is 30 days trial, goes in a pack with Nikon D200.

I havent used it yet, but anyway I want to try Adobe Lightroom. Can someone compare in some words these two applications?

[bobpeters]

I have been using NX 1.1 and now 1.2 extensively since it has come out, along with CS1 and now CS3. I do about 90 % of my editing with NX, the remainder with CS3. NX has two major advantages.

1. It saves you edits in RAW (8 to 12 MB for a D200) vs. about 40 MB for saving in 16 bit color with CS3.

2. Control Points are the method of making local corrections. See the Nikon video at their site.

NX has levels and masks like CS but with more limited options than CS. More of NX's tools are reversible than CS (items that are fitlers on CS are not reversible on CS.

The limitations of NX are that are no clone or pattern pint tool and in general many fewer tools than CS. It is slower than CS although NX 1.2 is a lot faster than NX 1.1 and is not as stable (I have had several crashes with NX).

[wild_england]

Thanks for the replys so far.....

Yes in the UK if you purchased a D200 in a period before the end of July you can send off to get Capture NX free..waiting for my copy to be delivered.

[asokko]

Thanks for the replys so far.....

Yes in the UK if you purchased a D200 in a period before the end of July you can send off to get Capture NX free..waiting for my copy to be delivered.

The quickest test. Just open the same photo in Nx and then in Photoshop, Lightroom or any other non-nikon editing software and you've got the answer straight away.

[horsegoggles]

I use CaptureNX mostly to bring detail out of shadows. It does a great job of isolating specific areas for enhancement. I'm sure there are ways to do the same thing in other applications, but I like the simplicity and speed with which these enhancements can be facilitated in NX. I've been attempting to improve the dynamic range in my photos and NX and bracketing my shots has helped.

[halesr]

I took a workshop with Vincent Versace and he absolutely swore by Capture NX. You might want to google his name. I think he writes quite a lot on the web and probably has some references to the program.

I did a quick search and found this link

http://www.ononesoftware.com/blog/2007/03/unleashing_the_power_of_captur.html

He apparently has a book out on Capture NX too. HTH--Rene

[dweitzman]

I have been working with NX for about a month now and am very happy with it. Have dabbled with most of the others - Capture One, Bibble, Lightroom. Tried to purchase Capture One but could never get the activation code to work. Their tech support was extremly tiresome, having to wait 12 hours or more for each unhelpful email reply. Eventually gave up on it. Bibble was very good, but I always found it confusing to work with. Lightroom was also good, easy interface, great browsing, but expensive. NX is extremly easy to work with, and like others have posted, the control point feature is very innovative and helpful. My only criticism of it so far is the browser is not very good. However Nikon offers a free stand alone image viewer program which works nicely and integrates with NX well. You can download it in the software downloads section of Nikon USA's website. Also think you will want to be running NX on fairly up to date processor with plenty of RAM. Easy to save in JPEG and Tiff files, or to save your edits in the NEF raw format which can always revert back to original unmodified image.

[bigtom61]

The new Capture NX (full version) is now included when you buy a new Nikon camera (or at least it does with the D300)
I like the way it works, it is very easy use and edit the RAW format.

[burgkamp]

I have the full version of NX. It was free when I bought my new D300.
You'll get great results from it but... it really crawls! I have a Dual processor G5 PowerMac and it really is slow on this powerful machine. I use it for one off images & troublesome shots only. As I have to process hundreds of images from weddings, I don't have time to use this program so the tool of my choice is Capture One. Love the new version of C1, but can't wait for the pro version to be released.

[suzy_walker]

I have the full version of NX. It was free when I bought my new D300 too. I absolutely could not stand it. I’m sure its fine if you get used to it. I crawled on my pc at work (which is fast loading photoshop and fine with Abobe Camera Raw). So I downloaded the free CS3 trial (30days full photoshop CS3), it was so good I went straight out and upgraded to CS3 (which you have to have if you want to use Abobe Camera Raw 4.3 which is the latest version and apparently the only version that works for the D300 raws). The upgrade is a lot cheaper than the full version so it helps if you have some version of photoshop to start with. I find it well worth it though.

[kaiphotos]

I used to use Photoshop and now use both Capture NX and Photoshop. The biggest improvement (or difference) in Caputre NX is the "control points", other than that, I don't think there is huge difference between the two.

[crisscross]

Have been using NX 1.3 for 2 months since getting a s/h D80. It is slow and troublesome on my ancient mac G4 powerbook, but worth it for me as the programmers evidently look at photography as I do; post-processing remains a pleasure. Never got on with Photoshop Elements 4 where its a graunch.

Yes do use NikonView NX instead of the built-in browser.

It is possible to do quite a lot of 'stamp' work by using the brush in combination with variants, then 'linked enhancement' to grain it.

For newer DSLR users who are not already into PS/CS, I highly recommend it. But do keep to same regional version as your key for upgrades and on mac 'repair permissions' & re-start regularly.

[crisscross]

I have now started a gallery http://www.pbase.com/crisscross/nx2 giving an introduction to the workflow of v 2.1.1 of this software, as I think it deserves to be used far more